The O.E.C.D.
, a group of 34 developed countries, urged policy makers to support investment in digital networks and to take a light touch on regulation, saying this was essential for promoting economic growth via the Internet.

“It’s really a milestone in terms of making a statement about openness,” said Karen Kornbluh, the U.S. ambassador to the O.E.C.D. “You can’t really get the innovation you need in terms of creating jobs unless we work together to protect the openness of the Internet.”

The approval of the recommendations by the O.E.C.D. council builds on a communiqué issued at a meeting in June, when the broad outlines of the policy were drawn up. The guidelines are not binding, but are intended to work through the power of persuasion . Also, the Internet recommendations will from now on be included among the criteria for assessing candidates for membership in the O.E.C.D., which is based in Paris.

While the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other movements have shown the potential of the Internet for organizing political protest, there has also been a backlash, with a number of governments stepping up their efforts to crack down on free speech in the digital sphere.

China, which has long blocked access to Web sites deemed to be undesirable, said recently that it would step up monitoring of social media, messaging services and other forums in an effort to crack down on the publishing of “harmful information.” India has asked Internet companies and social media sites to prescreen user contributions to remove disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content, according to Internet company executives.

In Russia there were reports of a crackdown on Web-borne dissent before and after parliamentary elections this month. Russia was one of a number of countries that blocked the adoption of a U.S.-backed declaration of online freedoms
this month at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russian officials, along with those of some developing countries, have made no secret of their desire to regulate the Internet at an international level, under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency. The O.E.C.D document, by contrast, endorses the existing, dispersed model of Internet governance, under which governments, business organizations and groups representing Internet users all have a say.

The move by the O.E.C.D. on Tuesday “validates, defends and promotes an Internet model that is not government led, but led by the technical community and the private sector,” said Markus Kummer, vice president for public policy at the Internet Society
, whose members include technology companies and educational institutions. “I think it is timely to remember some basic cornerstones, when there is increased pressure on governments to get involved in a more hands-on way.”

Some O.E.C.D. members’ policies have also come under scrutiny, especially measures aimed at cracking down on unauthorized sharing of digital music and other media. Campaigners for an open Internet have criticized the French approach to fighting piracy, which includes the threat of disconnecting persistent violators’ Internet connections.

In the United States, meanwhile, Internet companies like Google are campaigning against congressional proposals that could require them to block links to Web sites accused of facilitating piracy.

The music and movie industries say tougher action is needed to stop piracy. But opponents of the measures say they could be used to stifle legitimate political speech, not just copyright theft.

Among other things, the O.E.C.D. recommendation urges policy makers to “limit Internet intermediary liability” — that is, to shield Internet companies from responsibility for the content that they carry. Under existing U.S. laws, Internet companies have a so-called safe harbor if they take down copyright violations when they are informed of them.

President Barack Obama has not taken a position on the bills, but members of his administration have been outspoken in their defense of free speech on the Internet.

“The right to express one’s views, practice one’s faith, peacefully assemble with others to pursue political or social change — these are all rights to which all human beings are entitled, whether they choose to exercise them in a city square or an Internet chat room,” the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, said last week at an Internet conference in the Netherlands. “And just as we have worked together since the last century to secure these rights in the material world, we must work together in this century to secure them in cyberspace.”

A version of this article appears in print on December 14, 2011, on page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: Group Urges Countries To Protect Web Speech. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe